Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Rumor Mill: Cashman wings it home

The nice part about holding the General Managers’ meetings at a Chicago airport hotel must have been that it was easy for Brian Cashman to get back to New York.

Cobbling through this morning’s reports, it’s clear that the Hot Stove is alive and well, though there isn’t much concrete to hitch onto. Sure, the Yankees would be interested if the Blue Jays decide to move Roy Halladay — just the way they were in July (New York Daily News). But who’s to say Toronto can really stomach seeing Doc in their division pitching for either the Yankees or the Red Sox? That’d have to be one heck of a prospect package.

File the name Curtis Granderson under those that we might be seeing a lot of this winter (New York Post). We said in Spring Training that if the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs, it would be because a lot of things more important than Melky Cabrera vs. Brett Gardner went wrong. Well, neither really played All-Star caliber ball and the Yankees didn’t seem to suffer a bit. But looking to 2010, Granderson could be an impact player for a team that could lose both Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui.

Also today in the Post, the Yankees are planning to wait until after 2010 to discuss extensions with Joe Girardi and Derek Jeter. Arbitration-eligible Brian Bruney is expected to be tendered a contract, and Cashman has received some level of interest from Japanese teams in the long-forgotten Kei Igawa, though his preference would be to stay.

The most significant moves this week were to outright Josh Towers and Freddy Guzman into free agency. That means there’s still plenty of work left to do.

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